I am a mother and have a beautiful blended family with six children ranging in age from 15 years old to 2 years old, all of whom reside with us. I have been married going on 7 years to a very devoted husband and father, Matthew, who works as an active duty sailor in the US Navy.
In May 2015 I felt a lump in my right breast, but I thought because I was still breast-feeding my toddler that it was a clogged milk duct or possibly my third bout of mastitis this year. After it did not resolve itself on its own, I saw my primary care doctor and was referred to the Breast Heath clinic for further screening. On August 12 I had a mammogram which was immediately followed with an ultrasound of my right breast. They scheduled my biopsy for the next day. August 20 I received the results of my biopsy: positive for cancer, specifically Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. My cancer was diagnosed as grade 3, triple negative, and Stage 2. On September 29 I went in for my surgery. They removed the breast cancer which was about golf ball sized, three lymph nodes from my armpit to see if the cancer was spreading, and one lymph node from my neck. The results came back a week or so later: they got all the cancer and the margins were clear, the lymph nodes under my arm did not show signs of the cancer spreading. It has been a long journey already, and I still have 20 weeks of chemotherapy followed by 5 weeks of radiation left to go.
Today I started chemo off with a bang by taking the dose dense AC. My chemotherapy regimen is called AC/T. Currently I'm taking dose dense AC every two weeks for four rounds. In eight weeks I start the T every week for 12 weeks.Treatment took about two hours from start to finish. I'm told the T will take about 4 hours, but it will be much gentler on my system than the AC I'm having these next 8 weeks.
San Diego, CA
